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“Why Not Us?”
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Indiana, which, until November of last season, had more losses than any other FBS team in history, is now the king of college football.
(In case you’re wondering … Indiana entered the 2025 season with 715 all-time losses. Northwestern entered the season with 710. When the Northwestern lost to Illinois Thanksgiving weekend, the Wildcats’ record for the season fell to 6-6, with it’s all-time record falling to 577-716-44, just behind Indiana).
There are now a grand total of 136 FBS schools chasing a national championship in football. As a result of the Hoosiers’ unlikely rise to the top of the college football world, there are currently 135 athletic directors across the country who are hearing the same mantra from their fan bases:
“Why Not Us?”
If Indiana can do it, anyone can. There are no inherent barriers keeping any other school from accomplishing the same feat. Every other school in the country has the opportunity to build a roster and compete with the blue bloods of the sport.
At least in theory.
“Let me tell you: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done,” said freshly minted coaching genius Curt Cignetti, who led the Hoosiers to the first 16-0 record in modern college football history. “I know nobody thought it was possible. It probably is one of the greatest sports stories of all time”.
But, can IU’s be duplicated at another school … like say, at Colorado?
Well, yes and no.
Of course CU can win the national championship. While the percentage of Buff fans who were actually around for CU’s 1990 title continues to dwindle, the fact is that the University of Colorado can win another national championship.
But, can Colorado make a title run in today’s college football landscape?
Arguably, Coach Prime was Curt Cignetti before Curt Cignetti was Curt Cignetti. Both came from lower division programs (Coach Prime from Jackson State; Cignetti from James Madison). Both overhauled their roster through the Transfer Portal, while bringing along their best players from their previous stops.
Coach Prime was roundly criticized for booting the roster he inherited in Boulder … while Coach Cignetti is now considered a genius.
That’s what happens when you win.
Now, other schools are trying the proven “Cignetti” model, with Oklahoma State being a prime (no pun intended) example. The Cowboys finished last season 1-11, 0-9 in Big 12 play. In 2024, the Cowboys went 3-9, 0-9 in Big 12 play.
Exit Mike Gundy. Enter North Texas coach Eric Morris.
Morris gutted the Oklahoma State roster. There are fewer returning Cowboys on the team than what Coach Prime kept from CU’s 2022 team.
But don’t look for critical articles, like the ones Coach Prime faced in 2023.
Nope. It’s the exact opposite:
- Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News has Oklahoma State in his preseason Top 25 … No. 23 – Oklahoma State – We view first-year coach Eric Morris as a genius-level offensive mind — those who watched North Texas will agree — who is more than capable of turning OSU into a Big 12 contender in his first season.
- Brandon Marcello at CBS Sports … I’m a firm believer that Oklahoma State will rebound from one of the worst seasons ever to become a challenger in the Big 12 after Eric Morris’ arrival from North Texas.
- Bill Connelly at ESPN … OSU will score plenty of points in 2026, and if the Cowboys’ close-games luck flips as well, they could be a huge turnaround story.
Oklahoma State hasn’t won a game against an FBS team – not one! – since September of 2024. The Cowboys haven’t won a Big 12 conference game since November of 2023. The last time Colorado played Oklahoma State, in the regular season finale of the 2024 season, the Buffs won, 52-0.
And yet, with an entirely new roster, Oklahoma State is rated by the pundits as a dark horse pick to be a Big 12 contender.
(Meanwhile, back in Boulder … A CU at the Game hat to anyone who can send me an article from a national publication which has CU as a potential Top 25 team).
If Indiana can do it … If Oklahoma State can presumably do it … Then why can’t Colorado?
I’ll give you a few reasons …
The Roster …
We’ll be spending a great deal of time putting the new CU roster under the microscope over the next few weeks and months.
As of this writing, there are 42 transfers coming into Boulder to play for the Buffs, offset by the 37 Buffs who left. There will also be 15 incoming freshman donning the black-and-gold for the first time this fall, offset by the slightly higher number of Buffs who graduated (or, at least, who have exhausted their eligibility).
We’ll do a deep dive into each position group, and try to compare apples to oranges … Are the new receivers and running backs as good as the ones who left? Can the offensive line be rebuilt without Jordan Seaton? Are there enough defensive tackles and linebackers to get through the season?
There is at least one publication which sees CU’s roster as receiving a significant upgrade. McIllese Sports, which looks at college football analytics, rates CU’s transfer Class as the No. 3 in the nation in “Net Win Effect”, with Net Win Effect being defined as: Incoming minus Outgoing players. The expected net wins added or lost for an average FBS team, based on a 12-game schedule, an average schedule difficulty, and an average roster.
So, the Buffs have that going for them, which is nice.
Still, we’re comparing a new roster and its relatively similar talent against a roster which went 3-9 last season. As a result, expecting the new roster to produce what Indiana pulled off the last two seasons is unrealistic.
Which leads us to …
The Schedule …
While the 12 opponents for the upcoming season have been known for some time, the actual 2025 schedule wasn’t released until this past week.
And the Big 12 has done CU no favors.
We already knew that the Buffs would open the season on the road against Georgia Tech, and would then face another Power Four conference school, Northwestern, two weeks later.
What we didn’t know was how CU’s nine-game Big 12 schedule would play out … and it didn’t play out well.
Colorado was slated to have five Big 12 home games and four Big 12 road games. With no other Big 12 team facing the potential of three September road games, let alone three September road games against Power Four opponents, you would think that the Big 12 would give CU a home game to start the Big 12 calendar.
Nope.
CU opens Big 12 play on the road against Baylor before finally getting a second home game the first weekend of October … against Big 12 defending champion (and likely top ten ranked) Texas Tech.
Now, CU has only itself to blame for having two non-conference road games on its schedule, but this past season, the Buffs opened with four of its first five games at home, and limped to a 2-3 record.
Not saying that the Buffs can’t be competitive against its 2026 opponents, but starting with three of their first four games on the road, all against Power Four opponents, is perhaps not the best recipe for nationally recognized success.
Which leads us to …
Coaching …
Buff fans are – and, I believe, rightly so – excited about the hire of Brennan Marion as CU’s new offensive coordinator. The frustration of the Buff Nation with the offense of former OC Pat Shurmur was palpable.
Marion’s “Go-Go” offense, though, should breath new life into the offense … and give Buff fans new hope for the upcoming season.
Marion’s fast-paced offense includes formations in which two running backs line up on the same side as the quarterback. While that might sound limiting, Marion uses that formation to confuse the defense with tricky-to-defend runs, options and RPOs in an up-tempo offense. Freshman quarterback Julian Lewis could thrive in this offense, and CU has brought in transfers at the skill positions and along the offensive line who have talents which can be best utilized with Marion’s offense.
But … We don’t know if these schemes will translate to the Power Four level.
There are also many questions to answer on the defensive side of the ball. Just a year ago, CU defensive coordinator Robert Livingston was the toast of Boulder, receiving a pay increase and a two-year contract extension as CU wanted to keep Livingston from bolting to the NFL.
A year later? No worries about Livingston skipping town, as the Buffs went from 50th nationally in total defense and 43rd in scoring defense in 2024 to 121st in total defense and 111th in scoring defense.
Now, Livingston will have a new defense with 11 new starters.
Forget dominant … Will CU’s brand new defensive roster even be able to come close to the “good” defense the Buffs put on the field in 2024?
TBD.
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On November 4, 2004, Colorado travelled to Lawrence, Kansas, to face the Jayhawks. The Buffs, who had opened the 2004 season with a 3-0 record in non-conference games, had stumbled in October, going 1-4 to open Big 12 play.
Even after a 30-21 road win against Kansas, the Buffs were only 5-4, 2-4. Still, with the Big 12 North in disarray that season, the Buffs were still mathematically in the hunt for a Big 12 North title.
“Why not us?”, CU running back Lawrence Vickers said after the Kansas win. “Anything that happens to us is meant to happen to us. We were put in this position for a reason, to show us that all of the stuff we’ve been through, and all of the losses we’ve been through, that it’s still meant for us to go.”
The Buffs went on to defeat Kansas State and Nebraska to finish out the regular season, winning the Big 12 North for the third time in four seasons.
Colorado fans in 2026 can look at what happened at Indiana in 2025, and rightfully ask: “Why Not Us?”.
If Indiana can achieve the unlikely (if not impossible), if CU’s 2004 team can rebound from a 1-4 conference start to win the Big 12 North, why can’t the 2026 Colorado football team aspire to a great season in Year Four of the Coach Prime era?
Objectively, we know why.
But, the off-season, before spring practices have even begun, is not the time for assuming the worst.
Spring is the time for renewal, and renewed hope.
“Why Not Us?” indeed …
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4 Replies to ““Why Not Us?””
Great article, Stuart. Thanks for this and all you do. Great website.
I also believe having a healthy, humbled and motivated Coach Prime around the whole offseason will be a positive. Marion appears to be a proven recruiter and innovative offensive coach, both traits are sorely needed in Boulder. The new roster is talented, experienced and has many former team captains adding leadership at the player level that was urgently required. Last, all of CU’s opponents have already penciled in a “dub” on the schedule in the week they face the Buffs; this should aid the effort to surprise each week. Few give Prime the credit I believe he and the team deserve. There are lots of positive intangibles to get excited about for this fall. Hope I’m right. Go Buffs!
The bias against Coach Prime and CU in general is beyond comprehension. Think back to when CU v Neb on the day after Thanksgiving was a yearly highlight of two teams playing on the national stage and a regular Thanks Giving weekend tradition.
The Buffs had only been a top 25 team for a decade, but were number 15 & 16 or so in all time wins & win percentages, but they were a team that got national attention for all the right reasons… Before the wheels fell off due to poor coaching hires and bad decisions by an administration that really didn’t want to support football.
Other teams have suffered thru worse (sandals and etc.) and bounced back quicker than CU; it took Coach Prime and Rick George to get admins support to change the transfer rules and right the ship. But by then CU had become the team a few “national pundolts” like to kick while they were down and even when Prime first came on the scene, many came to see him fail.
Now coaches are being praised for doing the same as he did!
A new OC replacing old energy with new. A new group of players to build a team around, with a few following the OC to CU. Same as OSU. And, a surprisingly well ranked portal class despite the loss of some good starters, along with some HS talent added makes for a renewed energy in the locker room and fan base.
Although, there will be some that will believe it when they see it. And the beginning part of the schedule does CU no favors, but if the team is as good as it needs to be to compete in conference, then they should do better than expected. Win games during the first half of the season and the second half should be very productive with the team coming together due to those wins.
If OSU can supposedly do it with a new coach from a lower division school and a bunch of transfers, why not CU with an exciting new OC. Not claiming a championship, just a solid turn around.
We know that Shedure carried Shumur and last year’s team was close to winning some of those early games against teams that were really good. So why not a turn around to more wins than losses next year.
If the pundits think OSU and others can follow IU’s example to win, why can’t the coach who started it all do the same with a few new coaches and a rebuilt and ranked portal roster?
I’m glad Prime replaced a few coaches with less college experience with fresh blood and somehow patched together a solid class of HS and portal players for them to work with. Gives me hope of a better season, and that’s a lot considering the last twenty plus years.
Wilner is a clown. That is all.
I like it. I also like this:
https://www.on3.com/sites/cu-sports-report/news/colorado-deion-sanders-to-fine-players-for-being-late-missing-practices/
Apparently discipline may have been an issue last year. You want to be a pro? Act like one.
Go Buffs